$1.2Bn is assets and $1.4Bn in debt… i read somewhere.
I’m amazed that RadioShack was able to last this long. Their stores have seemed outdated since before Nobody Beats the Wiz shut down.
home depot has saturday and some weeknight classes to get people in the store. they even have a class for kids where they can build a project for free. anything might have helped keep them in business, but it seems like they didn’t have a clue as to what to try to keep themselves relevant
I remember a clerk called Chuck.
He used to work for the Radio Shack competition, the Buy More.
It’s a shame that a company that gave a lot of us our first taste of home computing had no idea how to stay on top of the technology boom.
Search for radio shack closures pdf to see the spreadsheet.
I’ve always loved Radio Shack stores, ever since I was a kid. I usually cruise into the RS at least two out of three visits to the mall. The past several years, it has been pretty boring. I guess I just kept hoping RS would do something cool to make themselves relevant again. I may try to swing into one soon, to see if they are closing and if they have any good deals going on. But, IMHO, they’ve been dead a long time, and I’m over missing them by now (okay, well, almost ). As far as pricing goes, I agree that 100% over internet price is remarkably bad. I would have had no trouble paying 30% over internet, in order to support a local store. In the past year or two, I’ve even paid the 100% “premium” because of needing the part quickly, but I don’t like it.
Yea i to hate to see it all go under for RS, i have 3 stores in a 20mile radius and one is closed and 2 others are right behind them
the first store was selling the counters/shelf's i wanted the wrap around counter they had i though it would be nice downstairs for a new flashlight workbench :)
Yes I totally forgot about the free battery club. I wish Radio Shack would have had a turnaround king or some type of leadership with a passion like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Mark Z type to turn it around into some relevant and successful for the later generations.
one of our local stores did an about face and went from liquidation to a total reset.
they even have generic 18650’s and 26650’s now.
My hometown Radio Shack (West Hartford) is open for business and is not even discounting anything.
It was one of the first 10 stores in existence.
Yes the one a few miles from me is going out. I’ve got to get down there today and look for a soldering station and some solder. Looked in the window the other day looked pretty empty though, think I might have missed the bus!
I’m going to swing by the one in my neighborhood and see if there are any deals left.
I bought something from them just a few weeks ago.
In some other forums I’ve seen lots of people who believe that RS shot themselves in the foot by getting into the cell-phone business and/or not focusing more on DIY, which strikes me as pure fantasy. Radio Shack’s purest DIY days are decades and decades ago, and even then, a big part of their DIY business was DIY tube replacement in radios and TVs, not electronics hobbyists. By the time I visited my first RS as a kid in the mid-70s, the tube replacement business was already dwindling and they devoted a big portion of the store to consumer electronics, then computers, then cell phones.
In the end, its hard to imagine how they’d put together a new retail business model in the DIY/maker space. People balk at paying a 2x premium for components vs online, but even with a bigger markup, you’d have to sell a huge amount of components at a few bucks a pack to pay their way on their own. Even if the components are a loss-leader, what would they upsell to? Soldering irons and other tools? Sure, the average selling price is higher, but people will also be comparing to online prices. Test equipment, also small volume, with online competition.
About the only thing I can imagine is a sort of subscription model that would get access to test equipment, 3-d printers, laser cutters, and perhaps an on-site components library and free shipping to the shop for anything not stocked. Its hard to imagine that working though without a big investment in upgrading the stores and training staff.
Im not sure if it was the cell phone business i think the Web did it, i mean yea u can go to radio shack for fast service but pay 3x more or go online and get it 3x cheaper?
They shot themselves in the foot when they turned themselves into a mail order catalog instead of stocking the basic stuuf that they used to carry. I’d go to the store to get something and they would say it was a special order item when it was something that they used to keep in stock.
Fark em!
Well, I swung by the store about a mile from my house and it doesn’t show any signs of closing. It was well stocked. There were some clearance items (including some ridiculously overpriced USB power banks), but not many.
Two company owned RSs by me. Stopped at one lunchtime and it was already pretty well picked clean…everything was on clearance…got some soldering stuff 60% off. Other store is still operating without discounting anything yet…guy at first store said they were going to clean out his store in a couple of days and do same discounting at other store next…the clock is ticking and RS will be done around my parts real soon.
Regardless of what RS became over the last 30 years it’s sad to see them go.
As a kid in the early 70s I always enjoyed going to Radio Shack, Heathkit or Lafayette Radio with my father. He often bought me one of those cheap little kits I could put together when I got home.
They should have taken advantage of the LED flashlight craze about 5 years ago. Well, 20/20 hindsight.
Meanwhile over here in Malaysia……